Discovery BoxGenesis 28:1-22
Context28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman! 1 28:2 Leave immediately 2 for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 28:3 May the sovereign God 3 bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! 4 Then you will become 5 a large nation. 6 28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham 7 so that you may possess the land 8 God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” 9 28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
28:6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. 10 As he blessed him, 11 Isaac commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” 12 28:7 Jacob obeyed his father and mother and left for Paddan Aram. 28:8 Then Esau realized 13 that the Canaanite women 14 were displeasing to 15 his father Isaac. 28:9 So Esau went to Ishmael and married 16 Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, along with the wives he already had.
28:10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beer Sheba and set out for Haran. 28:11 He reached a certain place 17 where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. 18 He took one of the stones 19 and placed it near his head. 20 Then he fell asleep 21 in that place 28:12 and had a dream. 22 He saw 23 a stairway 24 erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it 28:13 and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. 25 I will give you and your descendants the ground 26 you are lying on. 28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, 27 and you will spread out 28 to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another 29 using your name and that of your descendants. 30 28:15 I am with you! 31 I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”
28:16 Then Jacob woke up 32 and thought, 33 “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!” 28:17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!”
28:18 Early 34 in the morning Jacob 35 took the stone he had placed near his head 36 and set it up as a sacred stone. 37 Then he poured oil on top of it. 28:19 He called that place Bethel, 38 although the former name of the town was Luz. 28:20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food 39 to eat and clothing to wear, 28:21 and I return safely to my father’s home, 40 then the Lord will become my God. 28:22 Then this stone 41 that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely 42 give you back a tenth of everything you give me.” 43
Genesis 27:29
Context27:29 May peoples serve you
and nations bow down to you.
You will be 44 lord 45 over your brothers,
and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. 46
May those who curse you be cursed,
and those who bless you be blessed.”
Genesis 37:7-10
Context37:7 There we were, 47 binding sheaves of grain in the middle of the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves surrounded my sheaf and bowed down 48 to it!” 37:8 Then his brothers asked him, “Do you really think you will rule over us or have dominion over us?” 49 They hated him even more 50 because of his dream and because of what he said. 51
37:9 Then he had another dream, 52 and told it to his brothers. “Look,” 53 he said. “I had another dream. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 37:10 When he told his father and his brothers, his father rebuked him, saying, “What is this dream that you had? 54 Will I, your mother, and your brothers really come and bow down to you?” 55
Genesis 37:19-20
Context37:19 They said to one another, “Here comes this master of dreams! 56 37:20 Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild 57 animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!” 58
Genesis 42:6
Context42:6 Now Joseph was the ruler of the country, the one who sold grain to all the people of the country. 59 Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down 60 before him with 61 their faces to the ground.
Psalms 72:9
Context72:9 Before him the coastlands 62 will bow down,
and his enemies will lick the dust. 63
Romans 14:11
Context14:11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.” 64
Philippians 2:10-11
Context2:10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow
– in heaven and on earth and under the earth –
2:11 and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
[28:1] 1 tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”
[28:2] 2 tn Heb “Arise! Go!” The first of the two imperatives is adverbial and stresses the immediacy of the departure.
[28:3] 3 tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.
[28:3] 4 tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.
[28:3] 5 tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”
[28:3] 6 tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”
[28:4] 7 tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.
[28:4] 8 tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[28:4] 9 tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.
[28:6] 10 tn Heb “to take for himself from there a wife.”
[28:6] 11 tn The infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffix form a temporal clause.
[28:6] 12 tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”
[28:8] 14 tn Heb “the daughters of Canaan.”
[28:8] 15 tn Heb “evil in the eyes of.”
[28:9] 16 tn Heb “took for a wife.”
[28:11] 17 tn Heb “the place.” The article may indicate simply that the place is definite in the mind of the narrator. However, as the story unfolds the place is transformed into a holy place. See A. P. Ross, “Jacob’s Vision: The Founding of Bethel,” BSac 142 (1985): 224-37.
[28:11] 18 tn Heb “and he spent the night there because the sun had gone down.”
[28:11] 19 tn Heb “he took from the stones of the place,” which here means Jacob took one of the stones (see v. 18).
[28:11] 20 tn Heb “and he put [it at] the place of his head.” The text does not actually say the stone was placed under his head to serve as a pillow, although most interpreters and translators assume this. It is possible the stone served some other purpose. Jacob does not seem to have been a committed monotheist yet (see v. 20-21) so he may have believed it contained some spiritual power. Note that later in the story he anticipates the stone becoming the residence of God (see v. 22). Many cultures throughout the world view certain types of stones as magical and/or sacred. See J. G. Fraser, Folklore in the Old Testament, 231-37.
[28:12] 22 tn Heb “and dreamed.”
[28:12] 23 tn Heb “and look.” The scene which Jacob witnessed is described in three clauses introduced with הִנֵּה (hinneh). In this way the narrator invites the reader to witness the scene through Jacob’s eyes. J. P. Fokkelman points out that the particle goes with a lifted arm and an open mouth: “There, a ladder! Oh, angels! and look, the
[28:12] 24 tn The Hebrew noun סֻלָּם (sullam, “ladder, stairway”) occurs only here in the OT, but there appears to be an Akkadian cognate simmiltu (with metathesis of the second and third consonants and a feminine ending) which has a specialized meaning of “stairway, ramp.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 34. For further discussion see C. Houtman, “What Did Jacob See in His Dream at Bethel? Some Remarks on Genesis 28:10-22,” VT 27 (1977): 337-52; J. G. Griffiths, “The Celestial Ladder and the Gate of Heaven,” ExpTim 76 (1964/65): 229-30; and A. R. Millard, “The Celestial Ladder and the Gate of Heaven,” ExpTim 78 (1966/67): 86-87.
[28:13] 25 tn Heb “the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” The Hebrew word for “father” can typically be used in a broader sense than the English word, in this case referring to Abraham (who was Jacob’s grandfather). For stylistic reasons and for clarity, the words “your father” are supplied with “Isaac” in the translation.
[28:13] 26 tn The Hebrew term אֶרֶץ (’erets) can mean “[the] earth,” “land,” “region,” “piece of ground,” or “ground” depending on the context. Here the term specifically refers to the plot of ground on which Jacob was lying, but at the same time this stands by metonymy for the entire land of Canaan.
[28:14] 27 tn This is the same Hebrew word translated “ground” in the preceding verse.
[28:14] 28 tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew; Jacob is addressed as the representative of his descendants.
[28:14] 29 tn Theoretically the Niphal stem can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Jacob were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in other formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless (i.e., pronounce blessings upon) themselves/one another.” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 28:14 predicts that Jacob will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae (see Gen 12:2 and 18:18 as well, where Abram/Abraham receives this promise). For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.
[28:14] 30 tn Heb “and they will pronounce blessings by you, all the families of the earth, and by your offspring.”
[28:15] 31 tn Heb “Look, I [am] with you.” The clause is a nominal clause; the verb to be supplied could be present (as in the translation) or future, “Look, I [will be] with you” (cf. NEB).
[28:16] 32 tn Heb “woke up from his sleep.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[28:18] 34 tn Heb “and he got up early…and he took.”
[28:18] 35 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[28:18] 36 tn See the note on this phrase in v. 11.
[28:18] 37 tn Heb “standing stone.”
[28:19] 38 tn The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew (see v. 17).
[28:20] 39 tn Heb “bread,” although the term can be used for food in general.
[28:21] 40 tn Heb “and I return in peace to the house of my father.”
[28:22] 41 tn The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/subject) is used to highlight the statement.
[28:22] 42 tn The infinitive absolute is used before the finite verb for emphasis.
[28:22] 43 tn Heb “and all which you give to me I will surely give a tenth of it to you.” The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/object) highlights this statement as well.
[27:29] 44 tn Heb “and be.” The verb is an imperative, which is used rhetorically in this oracle of blessing. It is an invitation to exercise authority his brothers and indicates that he is granted such authority by the patriarch of the family. Furthermore, the blessing enables the recipient to accomplish this.
[27:29] 45 tn The Hebrew word is גְבִיר (gevir, “lord, mighty one”). The one being blessed will be stronger and therefore more powerful than his brother. See Gen 25:23. The feminine form of this rare noun means “mistress” or “queen-mother.”
[27:29] 46 tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (which is either an imperfect or a jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
[37:7] 47 tn All three clauses in this dream report begin with וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and look”), which lends vividness to the report. This is represented in the translation by the expression “there we were.”
[37:7] 48 tn The verb means “to bow down to the ground.” It is used to describe worship and obeisance to masters.
[37:8] 49 tn Heb “Ruling, will you rule over us, or reigning, will you reign over us?” The statement has a poetic style, with the two questions being in synonymous parallelism. Both verbs in this statement are preceded by the infinitive absolute, which lends emphasis. It is as if Joseph’s brothers said, “You don’t really think you will rule over us, do you? You don’t really think you will have dominion over us, do you?”
[37:8] 50 tn This construction is identical to the one in Gen 37:5.
[37:8] 51 sn The response of Joseph’s brothers is understandable, given what has already been going on in the family. But here there is a hint of uneasiness – they hated him because of his dream and because of his words. The dream bothered them, as well as his telling them. And their words in the rhetorical question are ironic, for this is exactly what would happen. The dream was God’s way of revealing it.
[37:9] 52 tn Heb “And he dreamed yet another dream.”
[37:9] 53 tn Heb “and he said, ‘Look.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse have been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons. Both clauses of the dream report begin with הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), which lends vividness to the report.
[37:10] 54 sn The question What is this dream that you had? expresses Jacob’s dismay at what he perceives to be Joseph’s audacity.
[37:10] 55 tn Heb “Coming, will we come, I and your mother and your brothers, to bow down to you to the ground?” The verb “come” is preceded by the infinitive absolute, which lends emphasis. It is as if Jacob said, “You don’t really think we will come…to bow down…do you?”
[37:19] 56 tn Heb “Look, this master of dreams is coming.” The brothers’ words have a sarcastic note and indicate that they resent his dreams.
[37:20] 57 tn The Hebrew word can sometimes carry the nuance “evil,” but when used of an animal it refers to a dangerous wild animal.
[37:20] 58 tn Heb “what his dreams will be.”
[42:6] 59 tn The disjunctive clause either introduces a new episode in the unfolding drama or provides the reader with supplemental information necessary to understanding the story.
[42:6] 60 sn Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him. Here is the beginning of the fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams (see Gen 37). But it is not the complete fulfillment, since all his brothers and his parents must come. The point of the dream, of course, was not simply to get the family to bow to Joseph, but that Joseph would be placed in a position of rule and authority to save the family and the world (41:57).
[42:6] 61 tn The word “faces” is an adverbial accusative, so the preposition has been supplied in the translation.
[72:9] 62 tn Or “islands.” The term here refers metonymically to those people who dwell in these regions.
[72:9] 63 sn As they bow down before him, it will appear that his enemies are licking the dust.
